blog

a project in the making

Starting something new on a topic that you are passionate and excited about sounds so cool when you say it out loud for the first time. At least that’s exactly how The We Do Project once made me feel.

As time goes by and you start really focusing on working on a brand new thing, you face some obstacles along the way, learn to figure out dealing with them and move on. Just as you say that you are over a problem that occured, it unfortunately takes a few hours for a new one to pop up. You learn patience basically.

I have not always been a hard working / humble person. The funny thing is, my grades were never so high that someone would appreciate my academic career. I learned cycling very late, I suck at bowling and I have serious trust issues. Plus, my GPA dropped like a mixtape. As much as I hate admitting it, there was a period in my life that I felt ashamed of my university, just because I didn’t want people to think that I wasn’t “good enough” to stay at my hometown, which really wasn’t the case. The thing that bothers me the most is that at some point, I was so fed up with explaining myself. Okay why did I even get here?

We Do Project was a draft in my mind for a really long while but I was so caught up in school work and etc. so it never made it to the top section on my priority list. I wanted to create something that lets people express themsevles, feel good about it (most of us never feel comfortable talking about the society stuff idk why), and of course bring value to others as well. I didn’t have anyone to work with me on this journey so I did everything all by myself. I know it sounds kind of mad but you gotta do whatchu gotta do, right?

Here was my routine on a single session:

- Gather up a group of people

- Set a date

- Get your equipment ready

- Be there on time, interview them, make them feel comfortable but interested at the same time

- Take each individuals portraits, record them speaking up on their manners, say goodbye

- Upload pictures on Instagram and the video on YouTube, write a blogpost, send feedback forms, keep up with the participants and get ready for another round, possibly in a week!

This usually took me about two to three days to be done with but without an exception, I always ended up utterly exhausted.

I knew that I wanted a team but the fact that I was a perfectionist was holding me back since the last thing that I wanted to do was to break hearts.

After days, weeks, months and some sessions of We Do, I started getting really charming feedbacks both from the participants about how it made them feel afterwards, and from the people who were following the project on social media on how they wanted to be a part of it too. This made me come to the realization that all that backbreaking work was worth it in the end.

So, to conclude, the project became my baby in a really short period of time and there is nothing I want more, than to be able to cherish the beauty underneath the people on the screens we stare at for hours everyday.

We Do Project is all about embracing yourself, accepting the fears you try to overcome, and breaking the boundaries we build in the teenage years that stick with us all throughout our lives.